Short Summary

Naturalised Bolivian businessman Klaus Altmann, who is wanted by France on charges of war crimes, said in his cell in a jail in La Paz on Wednesday (7 March) that his detention was a judicial error.

Description

Naturalised Bolivian businessman Klaus Altmann, who is wanted by France on charges of war crimes, said in his cell in a jail in La Paz on Wednesday (7 March) that his detention was a judicial error.

Altmann was arrested in La Paz on 2 March after the public prosecutor said he had admitted being Barbie, the former World War Two gestapo chief in Lyons. In his absence, Barbie was condemned to death for the torture and murder of resistance fighters.

Altmann was quoted in the Bolivian newspaper Ultima Hora as saying that his real name and identity was Klaus Altmann, and that he used the name of Klaus Barbie only during the war.

During his detention in La Paz, Altminn's wife and lawyer have visited him. They have both asked for his release, but on Tuesday (13 March), a High Court in La Paz ruled that he must stay in jail until the Bolivian Supreme Court rules on his case.

SYNOPSIS: Klaus Altmann, a Bolivian businessman who's wanted by france on charges of war crimes is to stay in the Central Jail in La Paz, despite pleas from his wife and lawyer to release him. Mrs. Altmann has visited him several times since he was arrested in La Paz on March the second. On Wednesday his lawyer visited Altmann and later asked for his release.

Altmann claimed on Wednesday that his detention was a judicial error. He was quoted in a Bolivian newspaper as saying his name was positively Kaus Altmann, and that the only used the name Barbie during the war.

But he must stay in his cell. The High Court says he must stay jailed until there's Supreme Court ruling.